9-1-1 fans might be welcoming a 9-1-1: Lone Star actor into the flagship series.
As we know, 9-1-1: Lone Star ends in January 2025 with its fifth and final season.
However, there could be at least one character being written into the main series: Tommy Vega, played by Gina Torres since Season 2.
Is Tommy Vega joining 9-1-1? Fans want to know after Episode 2 of Season 8, “When the Boeing Gets Tough…” aired.
Keep reading to find out more…
If you didn’t know, Tommy made a cameo as the dispatcher who performed the final call at Sergeant Athena Grant-Nash’s late fiancé Emmett Washington’s funeral during Athena’s flashback.
“All units, clear the air for priority traffic,” Tommy said. “Dispatch calling 237, Officer Washington. This is the final call for 237. Officer Emmett Washington is 10-7. Thank you for your dedication, service and loyalty. You can rest easy. We have the watch from here.”
In an interview with TVLine last month, co-creator Tim Minear revealed that he had Gina do the voiceover because he “really wanted to understand how this moment was going to feel” for the audience.
“I called Gina and just said, ‘Hey, can you do a little voiceover for me?’ I needed a great voice, and she’s got the best voice. She’s even the voice on a ride at Disney World, if I’m not mistaken — and I’m not,” he continued.
After “four or five takes,” her audio worked into the final edit.
“I’m always looking for reasons to employ Gina Torres,” he teased.
The two also worked together on The WB’s Angel and FOX’s Firefly.
At the same time, it’s possible Tommy is joining a new 9-1-1 spinoff, which Ryan Murphy confirmed was in the works last month.
“Tim Minear and I are working on a new spinoff that we’re actually writing, and that we hope to get on the air next fall,” he said to Variety. “Sadly, we all love Lone Star, but the financials just didn’t work. It’s a Disney company that was on a Fox network, and it just was never going to work. And we had a long run of it. So now we’re going to launch a new show in a new city that I can’t name, but it’s fun. And 9-1-1 moved to ABC and suddenly became, I think, the biggest show on Thursday night. They obviously have an appetite for that, so we’re going to give them another one that I really love.”
Co-showrunner Rashad Raisani also hinted at a “character-defining arc” for Tommy in an interview with TVLine: “Gina Torres is a Ferrari. Her talent is immense, and this season we just went all in on letting her go. She really takes the ball in Episodes 3 and 4, and then we have an even bigger storyline for her that starts to kick off in Episode 6. That will be her character-defining arc for this season — and perhaps the series. Many big things are coming for her character this season.”
Stay tuned as we wait to see what happens!
Here’s why 9-1-1 isn’t returning with a new episode until November 7.